I had them custom made at a friend's optical fab shop. My .01mm flatness spec was pretty easy for them. . I also quoted them out, if we can get 10 interested buyers, we can get them for $95.00/ea with a 3 week lead time.

I also had to fabricate new clips for the back of the bed. If there was interest in a group buy, I could have some of those made up, too.

Julia Truchsess wrote:You can buy a 0.25" MIC6 aluminum plate from McMaster for $47. Al has twice the thermal conductivity of glass, but they don't sell it in smaller thicknesses.

I bought 2 12x12 sheets of 1/4" mic6 on eBay for $40. I'll be printing up some ePC add-ons to engage the clips. I get my PEI from McMaster.

I haven't tested it yet, but i figure i can add an XY offset at the end of my start script to move the build inboard 10x10mm to get an uninterrupted 12"x12" build area. That will give me 10mm for the clips on the front edge.

Hey Walshlg I have one of those glass fiber beds you speak of. It's no good. Nothing sticks to it at all, so your still doing tape / glue / pei / buildtak etc. Waste of significant cash because an aluminum sheet is ¼ the cost and similarly needs the tape etc.

I have a PEI sheet on my N2 at home and it works really well for PLA but I have not had much success with other materials, it will require more testing though. When in doubt, Glass and Glue! (Yes I know somewhere out there a filament will not stick with that combo).

Interesting finding: The manufacturer is waiting for new boards and rec that I sanded the boards with fine grit. I sanded with 800 and 16oo grit and white flakes started coming off the plate - My guess is that the hairspray is contaminated with some heavy wax that you can't easily wash off. It accumulates with time and flaked off when I sanded. So long print on it now, we'll see if everything sticks well. May need to try long soaks in a heavy duty detergent if this is really a wax buildup.

I ordered one of those a while back but haven't tried it out yet. I also haven't had success with hairspray though, I can't seem to find that aquanet around, but pva glue seems to wash off completely. Hairspray definitely took more than hot water to wash off, I think I used detergent and then acetone/alcohol just to get everything off the glass

I intended to use that plate with polycarbonate and nylon using wolfbite, but I haven't had much time to experiment lately. I also have a garolite and extra glass plate I haven't gotten around to trying.

Has anyone played with liquid (sprayable) PVA on glass or aluminum plate? I have some from doing fiberglass work - there are materials that will not set up until isolated from oxygen (air), so you spray the part with PVA to seal it while it sure then wash off the PVA with water - same stuff that seems to make the purple glue stick work but I think I could spray a flatter and more even layer than I get with the stick.

I have had good luck with the purple glue stick on glass with both the NylonX carbon fiber from Matterhackers and with the Carbon X Nylon from 3DX - which seems to print better and stronger, so I have switched to it although the filament is brittle when dry and you have to feed it carefully or it can snap off.